Although access to traditional banking services remains impossible for most Africans, the availability of mobile phones has provided millions with access to mobile money services. While only 38% of sub-Saharan Africans have a bank account, 80% of them have a smartphone. Fintech is filling the gaps of traditional banking in Africa and is helpfully disrupting the way Africans manage their money. Digital innovation supports mobile payments, digital credits and cryptocurrency instead of plastic cards and bank branches, and has become the preferred choice of African consumers. Indeed, there were 295.7 million registered mobile money accounts in sub-Saharan Africa as of December 2018, representing 45.6% of the world’s figures, and surpassing the number of traditional bank accounts in the region.
Fintech is a major force shaping the structure of the financial industry in sub-Saharan Africa and creates efficiency gains by opening the financial services value chain. Moreover, considering the low level of financial inclusion, macro-financial linkages between sub-Saharan Africa and other regions, fintech could be a game-changer for economic institutions and central banks to foster inclusive economic growth and development.
In this webinar, we considered these and other questions about fintech in Africa.
Speakers:
- Mrs Aissatou Djiba Diallo, Senior Fintech Adviser, Ecobank Group
- Mr Oumar Ndao, Fintech entrepreneur and CEO of Afripayway
- Mr Andrew Takyi-Appiah, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Zeepay
- Moderator: Abdou Lo, Director for Africa, Access Partnership
Watch the recording here.
